TUF: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir Episode 7 Recap

This week’s episode kicks off with the aftermath of the Junie Browning vs. Roli Delgado fight. Back in the Team Mir locker room Frank Mir is pissed at Junie for not finishing Delgado much sooner. He tells Junie that this win is basically a loss because of how poorly he performed, especially given his fighting ability. Mir tells Junie that inside the ring he has all the skills to be a top fighter but outside of the ring he “scares the s–t” out of Mir and basically gives Junie the business for not being in peak physical condition for the fight.

Back at practice Krzysztof Soszynski injures his thumb while rolling with Eliot Marshall. Soszynski says it’s either broken or fractured but as long as he can make a fist then he should be good to go. It’s only him and Vinny Magalhaes left to fight for Team Mir at 205 lbs. so it will most likely be Vinny that goes, giving Kryzsztof more time to heal his thumb.

At the next practice session Team Mir runs his squad through the Wanderlei Silva UFC All Access workout. That means running full speed on the treadmill with your nose taped up and breathing through a snorkel and jumping into a garbage can full of icewater after the workout all in an effort to build up a resistance to lactic acid and mimic the grueling pace of a three or five round fight.

After the training session, Mir and Vinny are talking about Vinny’s jiu jitsu and how top level it is. Vinny comments that in rolling with Nogueira on the first day that he felt his jiu jitsu was better than Nogueira’s and that Nogueira’s jiu jitsu is very “basic.” Vinny said that he’s already hated in Brazil but that he doesn’t care and that he’s just speaking his mind that Nog’s BJJ is very “bread and butter” as Mir calls it.

Back at Team Nogueira a hard, but lighthearted training session takes place with drills that are meant to be taxing but also fun. Kyle Kingsbury notes that Nogueira does a good job of keeping things fun in practice while at the same time having hard workouts. He says that goes a long way toward your mental health because going out and busting your ass in the gym every day can wear on you.

At the house, Team Nogueira prepares a birthday dinner for their coach. They bake two cakes and cook a feast for the team. Nogueira comes over later and seems to truly appreciate what his team has done for him on his birthday and it’s a Team Nogueira lovefest. Some of Team Mir comments that Team Nogueira seems like a bunch of fakes and that they’re too close to one another for having known each other for such a short period of time. Shane Nelson thinks they’re “sucking each other’s d–cks too much.”

At the fight announcement the next day, Team Mir chooses Vinny Magalhaes to take on Team Nogueira’s Jules Bruchez.

At the house, Junie Browning tells some of the guys on Team Nogueira about Vinny’s comments that he’s a better jiu jitsu fighter than Nogueira. Obviously that information gets back to Nogueira and he’s none too pleased. He tells his team that you can be great at jiu jitsu in the gym but what matters is when you get in the cage. Nogueira says that Vinny might be good in the gym but he didn’t see it from him inside the cage. And he also says Vinny has “little balls.”

After that Vinny and Nogueira verbally spar in Portuguese for a good ten minutes, going back and forth about what was said and about the gossip inside the house regarding his remarks. Nogueira basically tells him that he wanted to help Vinny out but that he has lost any chance of being able to have any contact with Nogueira from here forward. Vinny tells Nogueira to check the tape and to see what he really said because it’s gotten twisted around from the gossip. Nogueira doesn’t want to hear any of it and seems pretty pissed that Vinny would disrespect him like that.

Nogueira and company are training Jules and they think Jules needs to keep the fight standing and land his left hand to have a chance. Team Mir, however, thinks he has zero chance and orders some prank props for Jules’ bed.

A huge tombstone, a body bag, and flowers appear at the house specially ordered by Krzysztof Soszynski. They set the stuff up in Bruchez’s room and write his name on the tombstone. Bruchez falls prey to the pranks of Team Nogueira but says he loves the prank and feels it’s the best one yet.

Before the fight Vinny says he had a dream that he got submitted by Jules. Frank Mir says he’ll quit coaching on the show if Vinny gets submitted by Jules and Vinny says he’ll leave the house if he gets submitted in the fight. And before long, it’s fightin’ time…

Vinny Magalhaes (Team Mir) vs. Jules Bruchez (Team Nogueira)

Round 1

Vinny comes out as the aggressor, trying for two high kicks and a right hand. None of that lands but he is able to land a vicious leg kick that lifts Jules’ foot off the mat. Jules throws a weak leg kick of his own that barely lands. Vinny answers with another leg kick of his own. For the most part the two fighters are standing and looking at each other. Vinny lands a hard kick to the body and then another leg kick. Another hard body kick by Vinny. And one more for good measure. More bobbing, weaving, and standing around. Finally Jules charges in with a combo and tries to clinch, throwing punches from the clinch. Jules tries to take him down and Vinny pulls guard, sweeping him from the bottom in full guard and ending up in mount. From there Vinny pulls his leg up like he’s going for a reverse gogoplata but takes Jules’ wide open arm instead and finishes him with an armbar.

Winner: Vinny Magalhaes via submission (armbar)

Dana White says he was about to fall asleep during the fight and says thank god it went to the ground.

Next week’s episode will feature a lightweight fight, some stolen food, and said stolen food being peed in. Be sure to tune in next week!

yeah, i noticed the machida thing too. must feel slighted. silva makes an appearance, and all the promos are hyping it. all machida gets to do is sit around eating birthday cake. you’d think dana would wanna at least mention him, so he’d have an excuse to show clips of him beating tito. but, i suppose there’s still time to hype him in future episodes.

Every TUF has a guy who talks tough but can’t back it up. This season seems to have more of that than previous versions. Jules talked about smashing Vinny’s face and breaking his teeth, but didn’t throw a single strike for a full minute, and it was a really weak inside leg kick. And last week Junie blathered on and on about beating Roli in the first round, and could barely finish three rounds on his feet. Pretty anemic. In the words of GSP, “I am not impressed with your performance.”